Safecast Drive — iOS companion app
Empowering citizens with data about their environment
Safecast was founded in the immediate aftermath of the 3/11 Fukushima nuclear disaster as an international non-profit organization. Our goal is to empower citizens with useful, accessible and independent data about their environment.
Today, we maintain the largest open dataset of background radiation measurements ever collected — over 57 million readings to date (as of November 2016) and growing daily. All of the data collected by our volunteers is available through an open, free an open-sourced public platform of all submitted radiation readings. We also provide access to a map enabling a clear data visualization available on browser, desktop and smartphone.
Our work is open-sourced and our communication happens mostly online, allowing fast experimentations and iterations (including an extremely successful Kickstarter campain). We follow a simple motto: “deploy or die”.
What Safecast proves is that all the preparation in the world — all the money in the world — still fails if you don’t have a rapid, agile, resilient system. — Joi Ito
Since 2012, we have also been investigating air quality and opened our beta program for air quality monitoring in October 2016.
Why did we need an app?
During workshops or individually (kits sold through KitHub) hundreds of volunteers have built their own Safecast Drivecast devices (aka bGeigie nano). Using these devices they are able to measure radiation levels wherever they go. However in order to submit collected measurements to our dataset, the standard process required them to extract the micro-SD card and upload the log file onto our API through the webpage. Due to these laborious steps, time between submissions could reach months. We needed a way to simplify the submission process and deliver a seamless experience to our volunteers, in order to maximize measurement collection and minimize submission time gaps.
How did we tackle the issue?
Harnessing the possibilities of Dr. Michael Kroll’s custom-made BLE chip, we decided to create companion apps for iOS and Android. These apps enable our volunteer to connect to the device, record data and upload them to the platform directly. To better further the experience, users can also list and update previous submissions.
Also, due to the fact that the app needed to run continuously in background while using bluetooth connectivity in order to collect measurements from the Drivecast device, a special consideration was given to minimizing battery drainage. After a couple of rounds of experimentation and optimisation, we successfully managed to deliver an app that is able to run in background for tens of hours without noticeable impact on the phone’s battery life.
As it is the case for all Safecast projects and in respect to our licencing guidelines, both apps are open-sourced on Github.
Role and responsibilities: Design, conception, coding and maintenance.
Stack: Swift, Bluetooth, GitHub, Slack.
Year: Since 2014
Our initiative received broad coverage including articles in National Geographic, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Fast Companies, Forbes, United Nations University, The Guardian, Makery, Gizmodo and on the Internet Wall of Fame.
More recently, SAFECAST co-Founder and director of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito and US President Barack Obama talked about the future for an issue of WIRED. Among the topics covered were the value of open data and some of our work.
